this document we describe the issues facing hardware design for general-purpose real-time processors. This document is divided into three parts, of which the first is a summary of the material in the second and third sections. The second section discusses performance features of current processors that make them unsuitable for real-time computing and proposes alternative features to achieve high performance while supporting real-time needs. The third section discusses the merits of using intermediate level vision as the driving application for the design of a true real-time processor.